Punctuation

English punctuation

Get to grips with English punctuation with Lingolia’s punctuation guide: we cover commas, speech marks, apostrophes and much more so that you can write clearly and confidently.

Comma

Here we explain the the use of commas between clauses, in lists, with names and numbers, and more.

Full Stop

Full stops aren't just used to end sentences. They are also used to show abbreviations, to separate decimal numbers and to indicate missing text. Click here to learn more.

Exclamation/Question Marks

Use exclamation marks to express surprise, emotion or humour. Question marks are places after questions and polite requests.

Colon

The colon can be used to separate clauses, introduce lists or even to emphasize information. These uses and more are explained in this section.

Apostrophe

Apostrophes can indicate missing letters in contractions, possession or special plurals. Find out more, here.

Brackets

In this section, we explore the usage of brackets in English.

Semicolon

The usage of the semicolon in English is subtle. It can be used in place of a comma or a colon. Here, we explain how and when to use a semicolon.

Dash

Dashes have various uses in English. The can add emphasis, change a subject, indicate an afterthought, and much more.

Hyphen

Hyphens join elements of compound nouns together and separate prefixes from words.

Quotation Marks

There are two different types of quotation marks with different rules for usages, particulary with regards to direct speech and quotes. British and American English also follow different rules.